Q: What are my content storage options?

Make Room for Media Servers

A few years from now, we may all look back and wonder how we ever got along without a media server. They come in different flavors. For years, companies catering to the custom installation market have offered their versions of music servers: hard-disk recorders that dub music from a customer's CD collection, store it as an MP3 file and then distribute it around the house. Homeowners access the music via a keypad system, where it joins FM, satellite radio, cable music channels and, lately, the iPod as another source of music. Some of these companies have added video to the mix. Here's a look at some of these media server solutions.

The Kaleidescape server, at the high end of the market, makes exact copies of DVDs and stores them on a hard drive, which can handle up to 440 standard-definition DVDs. Consumers buy the DVDs, which Kaleidescape stores on the server, but they don't have to contend with the discs themselves. You can start a movie in the home theater and finish in the bedroom without having to take a disc with you. Kaleidescape systems start at more than $12,000, including the server, DVD reader and a player, and are typically managed by a high-end control system like those from Crestron, AMX, Elan and others.

At the other end of the spectrum is Microsoft, which is targeting the broader market with its media server, the Media Center PC. Media Center PCs make music, video and pictures available to TVs throughout the house via Media Center extenders, such as the Xbox 360. Today's advanced Media Center PCs come with digital CableCards, enabling consumers to receive HD cable signals the same way they would with an HDTV.

Apple's solution is the Apple TV, which stores music, videos and photos to play back on a TV. Apple TV receivers, $299 for the 40-GB version and $399 for the 160-GB model, connect to a wireless home network via a simple setup process.

Distributing content is one role of a media server. Another emerging role is backup storage. As more and more of our content is digitized-and not stored on CDs, photo paper or even DVDs-we will need a way to protect and secure it. Enter Windows Home Server. HP is the first company to announce servers based on Windows Home Server software. The 500-GB ($599) and 1-terabyte ($749) MediaSmart servers take on several roles, and few of them resemble those of a standard PC. The servers don't come with a keyboard, monitor or mouse, for instance. They connect to the home network and communicate with the other PCs in the home.

Exceptional Innovation's entry-level LifeMedia Server 200 ($3,500), which provides entertainment and home control, includes Windows Vista Ultimate and offers 500 GB of storage. The server is the holding pen for TV, movies, music and digital pictures and also automation provide features, offering connections for supported lighting systems such as those from Insteon, Lutron and Centralite.

Depending on your needs, you could go with a robust four-tuner Media Center PC system from Niveus or a music-centric PC from Russound or a MediaSmart extender from HP.

The Microsoft field will only get larger as more third-party companies come on board. That even includes high-end control company Crestron, which will deliver its own Media Center PCs in 2008.

Control manufacturer AMX's MAX home entertainment server stores movies and music, which users select through an AMX touch screen controller, TV or PC. You can search for media by cover art, title, artist, genre, playlist or other data via icons or on-screen text that's customizable to the user. In a hurry? Type in the title of the movie movie you're looking for using a virtual keyboard.

Escient's Linux-based Vision series servers will store and play back movie files in the same way the company's music servers organize and play back music. The Escient model uses standard file-sharing software to move DVD content from the home PC to the Vision hard drive.

The ReQuest VRQ controller works through a Sony DVD changer and can distribute movies throughout the house via a third-party switcher, but the company is avoiding a hard-disk solution for DVDs at this time.

Instead, ReQuest is looking at online download opportunities in the form of high-speed Internet services, including Verizon's FiOS network, whose promised download speeds of 6 megabytes per second make hi-res video downloads a realistic alternative to discs. "The download model is much more viable, and that's the direction we're looking toward," says Bill McKiegan, vice president of sales and marketing at ReQuest. "The silver disc will eventually become obsolete."

How do you choose a media server?

Start by determining what's important to you, says Mike Seamons, vice president of marketing at Exceptional Innovation, whose Lifeware software runs on the Windows Vista platform and Media Center PCs. Seamons breaks out media servers into three types. "If you want a rockin' entertainment system on your TV, then start with an entertainment server. If you just want someplace where all your content is living safely, then get a storage server, and you can have all [your] pictures, videos, music and important documents backed up." The third category adds home control, such as Lifeware's ability to provide the hardware connections and software for the control of lighting, thermostats and security systems.